Following the verdict in the 2G spectrum scam case, the Supreme Court on Thursday decided to examine the status of investigation in the remaining cases linked to the 2G spectrum scam and directed the Centre to file a status report in this regard before January 23.
While the case against former Telecom Minister A Raja resulted in acquittals by a Delhi court recently, there are four other cases pending probe with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate of which one is the Aircel-Maxis deal involving former Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti.
The Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and MM Shantanagoudar directed the Centre to file a status report on the pending cases in the bunch of 2G spectrum scam cases. It said, "Although the trial court recently has pronounced an order in the 2G case, that does not conclude the petition pending before us."
The Court asked the Special Public Prosecutor Anand Grover to list the matters which are currently under probe. Besides the Aircel-Maxis deal, Grover referred to a case of irregularities in grant of excess spectrum to major telecom companies such as Airtel and Vodafone that resulted in a loss of over Rs 840 crore to the public exchequer. However, the trial court discharged all the accused in the case following which the SPP opined that it's a fit case for filing a review petition. To this, Centre differed and sought opinion of Attorney General who was in favour of a partial review.
Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy also raised another issue concerning a senior investigating officer of Enforcement Directorate who was being deprived of promotional benefits for acting against certain political bigwigs accused in the 2G scam.
Swamy said anonymous complaints were made against Singh and the Court had in the past protected all investigating officers from being influenced in any manner while conducting the probe in the 2G cases.
The Bench said it would look into the matter once the Centre filed the reply.
Singh had said that complaints were filed against him soon after he attached assets worth Rs 1.16 crore of the accused in the Aircel-Maxis case. These assets were of Karti Chidambaram and a firm allegedly linked to him in connection with ED's money laundering probe into the deal.